A Portsmouth garage is celebrating after being named the best independent servicing & MOT garage in Hampshire.

Nicholas Buck was taken aback when his Atlanta Garage in Stamshaw was named as the winner at the Corporate Vision’s Automative Awards last month. The garage has been running for around six years and has built a loyal customer base with one of them putting its name forward for the award.

Nicholas said: “It’s a nice thing to get that recognition as it backs up that you are doing a good job. We got nominated by one of our customers. We then had some phone calls back and forth with the awards company and we were up against some of the really big places.”

Despite the stiff competition from across the county, the Portsmouth garage came out on top with Nicholas and his team’s customer service being heralded.

Nicholas said: “What they really liked about us is our focus on customer services and we are not that big a garage. It is really important for us to have that customer focus and we have lot of loyal customers. I would say about 90 per cent of our customers come back so we see the same people.

“Everyone knows that we go above and beyond, we really do and we try to help people out and people appreciate it.”

While the award is great recognition for Nicholas, he emphasised the huge role his team has played in the success of the business with Cliff Hopwood, Alfie Watt, Marcus Ponter and Jo Buck all embodying the customer first approach.

Nicholas said: “The team are all the reason we got the award and have returning customers. They all deserve the credit.”

Portsmouth City Council has signed off plans for a combined authority covering Hampshire to Parliament for approval.

The council’s cabinet members were the last of the four upper-tier councils across the county to sign off plans for the government’s devolution agenda.

Devolution involves the transfer of powers and resources from Westminster to local communities, such as in London and Greater Manchester.

Locally, there are plans for a combined authority comprising Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, which would have an elected mayor from May 2028.

Elections were supposed to take place this year, but were delayed. As a result, the combined authority would be led in partnership between the county’s four upper-tier authorities until the mayoral elections.

The authorities include Portsmouth City Council, Southampton City Council, Hampshire County Council and the Isle of Wight Council.

All four authorities have given the green light to the proposal, with Portsmouth being the last to do so yesterday.

Councillor Steve Pitt, leader of the council, described the decision as “momentous” for the county as it’s “the first time that all the upper tier authorities have approved a plan”.

The plan, or statutory instrument, will be sent to the government, which will lay it before Parliament. If Parliament approves it, then the new authority would be set up at that stage – likely to be somewhere between six and ten weeks, plus parliamentary recess times.

Officers said failure to take the opportunity now “would likely to be to the detriment of Portsmouth with less funding available and any future devolution offers likely to be far less generous”.

Councillor Darren Sanders, cabinet member for housing and tackling homelessness, said: “This is going to be Britain’s sixth biggest devolved body – more than many other parts of the country that are more famous than this area.

“Devolution is incredibly important, getting power out of London means economies are better, means communities are more in control.

“Residents want to feel more in control of their lives – this is one way of doing that.”

Council reports state that the proposals would give the authority extra powers, including the option to introduce a visitor levy if approved through a national government consultation.

They would also open up access to more funding to support growth, as the new combined authority will be in receipt of £1.3bn over 32 years, and increase representation at a national level, including in the Council of Nations.

The changes are expected to strengthen working between councils and government, placing the area in the first wave of Mayoral Combined County Authorities.

Devolution is different from Local Government Reorganisation, which is another Labour government agenda that aims to replace the county-district tier system of local government with large unitary authorities.

A brave Romsey performance was not enough to keep a strong United Sevices Portsmouth side at bay. A blustery sunny day at the historic Portsmouth ground offered Romsey the chance to close the mid table points gap on their hosts, writes Peter Jones.

There was a clear statement of intent from USP in the first minute of the game as they spun the ball wide, bringing their hard running back row forwards into the game straight away. Romsey’s scramble defence stopped their momentum and this set the pattern for the afternoon.

After just ten minutes however Romsey established a platform close the the USP line and a clever move at the front of a lineout led to Alfie Lawrence being driven over to open the scoring. Stung into action, USP’s scrum half took a quick tap penalty and the Romsey defence could not contain the strong running blindside flanker and the scores were level.

Romsey’s brave work at the breakdown frustrated the hosts for much of the first half until a sustained series of attacks broke through their tackles and USP went into the interval 12-5 ahead.

USP came out of the break determined to drive home their advantage, and early pressure from the kick off led to a scoring drive by their forwards. Now two tries adrift, it was crucial that Romsey score next to stay in the game, but they failed to capitalise on possession deep in the USP half. A breakout quickly turned into a try, and with Romsey heads dropping, another score meant that USP had a bonus point and a 29-5 lead.

A succession of injuries and some indiscipline from both sides meant that the crowd’s hopes of a free running game were thwarted, although USP did manage to rub salt in the wound with an interception try in the last quarter. Sadly, a flowing Romsey move ended frustratingly short of the USP line in the very last play of the game. The final score was a sobering 43-5.

Jason Berry’s side were left with much to think about as they made their return trip down the M27. The pack had performed well at scrum time - particularly considering several changes of personnel - and they were more than a match for USP at the breakdown. Problems in the line out meant that they could not establish a toe hold in the game and they were ultimately outgunned by some strong running from the opposition back row. They will be keen to bounce back at Ganger Farm next Saturday March 7 as they entertain local rivals Southampton RFC. Kick off is at 3pm.

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder praised his team’s mentality after seeing them win 1-0 at Portsmouth thanks to a last-minute goal from Andre Brooks.

Portsmouth were the dominant side throughout the first half but Wilder said his players were rewarded for their resilience with a first away win in six games after Brooks slid in to convert Tyrese Campbell’s cross at the far post in the 90th minute.

Wilder said: “Sometimes games are won on mentality. You can’t always play well. We played well on Monday against arguably the best team in the division (Middlesbrough).

“The art of what you need to do is when you’re not at your best, which we weren’t, is that you have to rely on your mentality. If we weren’t together, then we’d have been rolled over.”

The win sees the Blades climb to within six points of the play-offs but Wilder refused to be drawn on talks of a push for promotion.

He said: “It’s the next game. You win games of football, you go up the division. If we were 24th, I’d want to be 23rd. If we were 10th, I’d want to be ninth. And if we were top, I’d want to be top by 10 points. So that’s our attitude. We’re not top.”

The game saw midfielder Kalvin Phillips start a match for the first time since last March after he joined the club on loan from Manchester City in the winter transfer window.

Commenting on his performance, Wilder said: “He was great. He should have only done about 60 minutes, but he ended up doing 85 minutes, which I think tells a lot about what he’s like as a lad.

“His target at Manchester City was to try and move Rodri, who was the Ballon d’Or winner. That’s quite a difficult one. He’s a good kid, he just wants to play football.”

Portsmouth finished the day in 21st place, one point and one place above the relegation zone, albeit with two games in hand on the teams around them.

Manager John Mousinho admitted that his team had paid for not taking their chances when they were in the ascendancy in the first half.

He said: “I thought the first half we were really dominant, very good performance, but we didn’t show enough composure in front of goal and slashed at a couple of opportunities.

“It was a slightly different game in the second half, but I thought once we got to grips with it, we looked more likely to win in the last 20, 25 minutes and unfortunately got caught on the break.

“Every game from now until the end of the season is going to be massive. The next one is the biggest one.”

Hampshire County Council’s £354 million deficit for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support is set to be largely paid off after confirmation of a multi-billion-pound Government rescue package.

The Government announced it will commit £5 billion to cover 90 per cent of SEND-related deficits built up by all councils in England up to the end of the current financial year.

The move follows warnings from the Local Government Association that eight in 10 councils could effectively face bankruptcy if forced to absorb the mounting shortfalls.

The latest forecast for Southampton City Council’s dedicated schools grant deficit by the end of 2025/26 was £16.54 million, according to a cabinet report published last month.

Hampshire’s deficit is forecast to reach £354 million by March 31, 2026, driven largely by the soaring cost of supporting children and young people with complex needs.

Without Government intervention, the county’s Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficit had been projected to exceed £716 million by the time the current statutory accounting override ends in March 2028.

The temporary override has allowed councils to keep high-needs deficits off their main revenue budgets, avoiding an immediate impact on their overall financial position.

In a statement, Hampshire County Council said it welcomed the announcement but cautioned that the funding is neither automatic nor immediate.

A spokesperson for the county council said: “The Government has pledged to cover 90 per cent of the deficits accrued by local councils, which are almost entirely caused by high-needs SEND costs exceeding available funding.

“But the write-off is not automatic as councils must submit a ‘local SEND reform plan’ for approval by the Department for Education, and the timing of when the cash will be received is not yet clear.”

Even with the write-off, Hampshire would still need to find more than £35 million, the remaining 10 per cent of its forecast deficit, from its own resources.

The council warned that it cannot currently afford to meet that cost when the override ends in April 2028. Reserves are already under severe pressure after years of budget gaps and are expected to be exhausted by 2027/28.

Until the Government funding is paid, the authority says it will continue to carry the financial burden itself, losing an estimated £14 million a year in foregone investment income as it underwrites the deficit from its cash balances.

The SEND funding crisis has intensified in recent years, with rising demand for education, health and care plans and increasing placement costs placing sustained strain on council budgets nationwide.